Man Kills Son, Self After Wounding Wife

A man who was distraught over marital problems shot and wounded his estranged wife outside her Canyon Country condominium Monday, then barricaded himself inside and killed the couple’s 3-year-old son and himself, sheriff’s deputies said.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team stormed the building and found the man and child dead after trying unsuccessfully to contact him by telephone and bullhorn for four hours.

Sheriff’s deputies said the victims were tentatively identified as Calvin Manuel Stanfield, 35, a San Fernando Valley resident, and his son, Dylan.

Rhonda Stanfield, 32, who was shot once in the hip, was in fair condition at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, hospital officials said.

Deputies said the incident began Monday afternoon when Stanfield confronted his wife as she worked out at Gold’s Gym in Northridge.

They had been separated about two weeks, deputies said.

A quarrel followed, deputies said, and the woman telephoned the Devonshire station of the Los Angeles Police Department to make a complaint.

When she returned to her condominium in the 18000 block of Saratoga Way about 4 p.m., her husband appeared again, deputies said, armed with a rifle.

He fired several shots at her in the building’s courtyard, neighbors said.

“She fell like a rag doll,” said a 9-year-old boy, who did not want to be identified and who said he was watching from a balcony.

Neighbors said they called 911 as Stanfield took over the woman’s upper-floor condominium and more shots were heard inside.

*

Paramedics carried the wounded woman from the courtyard as deputies stood guard. A SWAT team landed in several helicopters on nearby Soledad Canyon Road--closing it at the height of rush hour and causing a large traffic jam--and surrounded the complex.

About a dozen neighbors were evacuated from units in the immediate area.

For four hours, the SWAT team tried to contact Stanfield, with no success.

Finally, after 8:30 p.m., deputies burst into the condominium and found the man and child dead. Stanfield apparently killed the boy and himself shortly after entering the apartment, deputies said.

The boy was believed to be the Stanfields’ only child, deputies said.

Several women from the neighborhood who had stood vigil during the barricade burst into tears and hugged their children when it was announced that Stanfield and his son were dead.